The selected leaking overnight of news that Jes Staley is
set to be appointed as the new chief executive of Barclays
suggests that, this time around, the committee determining the
appointment has made up its mind that
the former JPMorgan banker is the man for the job.

Of course, some would argue that any committee empowered by
Barclays in this process was a committee in name only, with
chairman John McFarlane clearly determined to get his own
man after his abrupt ousting of former CEO Antony Jenkins.

That will give some comfort to Staley, who came close to
getting the Barclays job three years ago before the group
overseeing the appointment executed an abrupt, last-minute
U-turn.

Legend has it that, in the end, the Barclays elite and their
advisers could not get comfortable with replacing one smooth
American investment banker, Diamond, with another in Staley,
such was the public vitriol aimed at the former for his
perceived role in the credit crunch and the
Libor scandal.

Sources close to the situation at the time told Euromoney
that the Barclays committee reversed its decision once word had
leaked out internally that Staley might get the job; Jenkins
became aware of that likely decision, and threatened to walk if
he lost out to Staley; the board was worried that Rich Ricci,
then head of an investment bank that needed some stability
after Diamond’s sudden departure, would do the
same.

The same investment bankers that ran rings
round Jenkins
will do the same if they spot any weakness in
Staley

So Barclays got cold feet on an outside appointment, for
fear that the bank would lose all of its senior management
which, lest it be forgotten, was still being lauded for the
audacious and successful takeover of Lehman Brothers at the
time. Staley retreated to his role at hedge fund
BlueMountain.

First, while undoubtedly a talented and successful career
banker, Staley is perhaps the only victim of JPMorgan CEO Jamie
Dimon’s tall poppy syndrome succession strategy
who, most sources say, was not really a genuine threat or
contender to become the US bank’s next chief
executive. Those close to the bank insist he was not seen as
being of the same calibre as others that departed, or are still
waiting to see if they face the axe or the elevator.

Second, Staley needs to fight the perception that he is far
from a first-choice candidate. Many potential Barclays CEO
candidates that Euromoney spoke to over the past few months
since Jenkins’ departure said the role offered
little or no appeal to them, and insisted they were not in the
running. At least he won’t be referred to by his
chairman disparagingly as a 'battlefield
promotion’, as Jenkins apparently was.

Third, Staley needs to show he is his own man. McFarlane has
a reputation as a hands-on (or controlling) chairman.
That’s one of the reasons – alongside
life in the public eye, and relatively poor compensation for
the size of the task at hand – that other potential
candidates gave for not wanting the job. The same investment
bankers that ran rings round Jenkins will do the same if they
spot any weakness in Staley.

Fourth, Staley needs to show that he is a former investment
banker whose knowledge of the industry allows him to take the
right approach to what remains the bank’s best
business. He must not use his background to be an
over-aggressive cutter, or to protect businesses simply because
they are ones he understands. For that purpose, he would do
well to study the example of his peer Sergio Ermotti, himself a
career investment banker away from the firm, at UBS.

Staley might find his timing spot on. There have been subtle
recent shifts in sentiment towards both Barclays and the
banking industry in the UK. The conversation in the City and
Canary Wharf now is less to poke fun at the plight of Barclays,
than to bemoan what has happened to one of dwindling band of
European investment banks that might be able to compete on an
international, if not global, scale. McFarlane seems to like
large parts of the investment bank.

Of course in banking, timing is everything. Let’s
imagine Jenkins had departed a few months earlier. Barclays
would surely have made its first call to a former JPMorgan
investment banker who had been out of the industry for a while,
seeing his reputation grow. But at the time Barclays was
committed to Jenkins. So in the end, Bill Winters took the
opportunity that came up at Standard Chartered.

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